‘Man of Steel’ Bows at No. 2 at Japanese Box Office, Miyazaki Still Unmovable

TOKYO – Man of Steel opened with $2.7 million (268 million yen) weekend on 610 screens, but not even Superman can yet knock Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises off its perch at the top of the box office rankings.

With the anime master’s retirement announced on the weekend at the Venice Film Festival, where The Wind Rises (Tachinu Kaze) is in competition, the film is likely to get further momentum at the Japanese box office.

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The Wind Rises has now grossed more than $88 million in Japan, and shows no time of stopping yet. As the summer vacation came to an end, Monsters University dropped from second place to fifth on the weekend rankings, but what is now to be Miyazaki’s film, with its more adult themes, has stayed strong.

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The Wind Rises, which paints a fantastical portrait of the life story of the designer of the World War Two Zero fighter plane, is now being tipped for an Academy Best Animated Feature nomination. However, it looks unlikely to match the box office of Oscar-winning Spirited Away, which is the highest-grossest Japanese film in history, with more than $275 million globally.

Sadako 3D 2, the latest in The Ring horror series, and promoted as the world’s first smartphone 4D release, debuted at sixth, with nearly 114,000 admissions on 232 screens, for a $1.6 million opening weekend.

Elsewhere, Star Trek into Darkness dropped down from third to seventh place on its second weekend, while White House Down fell from fifth to ninth on its third weekend. World War Z propped up the top ten on its fourth weekend of release in Japan.                                                                                                                                             

Twitter: @GavinJBlair